The present invention relates to a display apparatus, and particularly to a display apparatus comprising a combination of a transmission type of display element such as a fluorescent display lamp (hereinafter, referred to as FL) and an illumination display, obtaining a three-dimensional visual effect and performing a functional display through a microcomputer control.
FIG. 7 shows a front view of a conventional display apparatus using a biplanar type of FL 1, and FIG. 8 shows a sectional view of the apparatus. As shown in FIG. 8, the biplanar type of FL comprises two pattern layers, i.e., a front pattern layer 7 and a rear pattern layer 13 between which a space is defined. Each pattern layer provides a different display to obtain a three-dimensional visual effect. Through only electrodes connected to the rear pattern layer 13, the fluorescent substances printed on both pattern layers 7 and 13 are energized to generate light. In order to keep the brightness of the pattern layers 7 and 13 at the same level, the size of the space between the pattern layers 7 and 13 must be substantially 3 mm wide. The front pattern layer 7 is a transmission type (i.e., transmissive) pattern layer, while the rear pattern layer 13 is opaque in order to make the elements on the substrate invisible. As shown in FIG. 7, in the case of showing a speaker arrangement for audio equipment, because of the limitations concerning the pattern on the FL 1, the size of the speaker arrangement to be displayed is limited. Even though both the center speaker display 2 and the front speaker display 3 are provided by the rear pattern layer 13 and the rear speaker display 4 is performed by the front pattern layer 7, depth perception is not sufficient since the width of the space between the pattern layers 7 and 13 is only about 3 mm.
Thus, in the conventional biplanar type of FL 1, since the space between pattern layers is only substantially 3 mm wide and the depth perception is less, a minimal three-dimensional visual effect can be obtained. Though a functional display can be provided via a microcomputer control, the display is limited within the FL 1, which restricts the content and size of the display. In addition, the cost considerably increases in comparison with a typical single layer type of FL.